Actress Gabourey Sidibe is ready to take on one of her most important roles to date as host of AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange, a documentary series highlighting contemporary life, art and pop culture in the African Diaspora. The fifth season of AfroPoP, produced by Black Public Media, premiered Tuesday, January 22 on public television’s WORLD channel, continuing on Tuesdays weekly through February 5, 2013.

Sidibe, who is best known for her Oscar-nominated performance in the film Precious, decided to accept the role of host as an opportunity to learn more about her roots. “I am part African—I am Senegalese. So I looked at it as a chance to get closer to where I am from,” she says.

Furthermore, she is hoping that this season, which focuses on human and women’s rights issues, will shatter myths about Africa. The challenge is not new for the Harlem- raised star, since as a young woman she had to combat stereotypes. “Growing up I was the African kid in my school. Every time I went back to Africa people thought I was sleeping in a bush and being chased by lions, but it wasn’t that. So I hope people can see themselves in this series and I hope it highlights that everyone struggles and celebrates.”

The universal human experience is also the core theme of visual artist Peter Wayne Lewis’ exhibition Paintings from the Middle Earth Part IV at Skoto Gallery. Special guests on opening night included legendary painter Ademola Olugebefola and writer of the exhibition’s e-catalog, Babacar M’Bow. The series of works presented visually unites themes of science, art and music as the artist’s fluid lines draw parallels between these worlds to demonstrate their interconnectedness. “There are creationists who think science is an aberration and not part of the equation,” Lewis says. “But it is only a description of the majesty of what you may say your God is, so it is all one in the same thing. Human beings, in our foibles, are trying to describe this gift we are given which is life.” The exhibition is on-view until February 23, 2013.

Further exploring themes of life is the exhibition Elements in Red, on view at New World Stages and curated by Bernard Stote. Works by artists such as Harlem Arts Alliance member Leon Nicholas Kalas, Joyce Yamada and Math-You explore this primary color and expand its connotations beyond passion and violence. “When I did the call for art I noticed getting such a diverse application from artists from blood and war to love to landscape,” says Stote. “It’s amazing how vibrant that color is and how many different themes it can invoke in artists.”

While this week offers opportunities to check out all of the aforementioned projects, you’ll also want to support upcoming events including actress/comedian Kim Coles’ one-woman show, Oh But Wait, There’s More and Keith Sweat’s appearance at MIST Harlem.

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The Harlem Arts Alliance is a not for profit arts service organization celebrating 10 years of service to a prestigious list of members such as the Apollo Theater, the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce, Columbia University, Harlem Stage (Aaron Davis Hall) and over 850 more cultural/arts institutions and individuals. The weekly column, Harlem Arts Alliance Presents: On the “A” w/Souleo, covers the intersection of the arts, culture and entertainment scene in Harlem and beyond and is written by Souleo, founder and president of event/media content production company, Souleo Enterprises, LLC.

Sahr Ngaujah has spent the last two years playing the great Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti on stage in New York and London. Last month he took the production back to Kuti’s native Nigeria. Here, he describes the extraordinary and emotional trip

Man on a mission … Sahr Ngaujah on the beach near Lagos, Nigeria, in April. Photograph: Suki Dhanda for the Observer

The air was humid and thick; a constant wind blew in from the sea, sponging up every sweat bead on our skin. A cacophony of sound permeated the air – revving and idling engines, okada motorcycle taxi horns, heavy bass lines and people talking loud. Posters bearing the faces of various smiling politicians were plastered on every inch of space.

In New York and London, our task was to recreate Fela Kuti‘s world in the Nigeria of the 1970s, viewed from within his club, the Africa Shrine. Now we were entering Nigeria to bring Fela back to his own people, to recreate the Shrine of the 70s at a big theatre built by his children and called the New Africa Shrine.As our plane came over Lagos we were keenly aware that today was election day, the first round, with two weeks to go. We were arriving under curfew. It was a sunny day and as we looked out of our windows it was clear the curfew was taken seriously. All of the streets were clear, no movement save the military men at their posts at junctions throughout the city.We disembarked amid a flurry of security personnel, some private, some state, some local. We were ushered on to our buses, and with a full military escort we tore out of the airport and began barrelling down the empty expressway to Victoria Island. Welcome to Lagos! We had no idea what would await us in this infamous African metropolis, but we had a mission and a commitment to complete it.I first visited Nigeria in 2008, just after the off-Broadway production of Fela! closed. I was there for Felabration, a week-long festival that takes place every October to mark Fela’s birthday. I spent my nights at the New Africa Shrine and my days visiting Fela’s house, Kalakuta. I often wondered what sort of impact this type of experience would have on my colleagues after all the effort they’d put into showing other people the world of Fela. Now they were here. We were to play the New Africa Shrine and the Eko Hotel’s conference centre, both holding 3,000. First we had to settle into our new environment and prepare to meet our first audience, the people of Fela’s Shrine.In those early days my routine consisted of a lot of sleep to get over the jet lag, rehearsing my Yoruba pronunciations and running along the ocean in the Lekki district. Some of my colleagues were having their first experience of African markets and haggling, Nigerian style. At night we could be found recounting the day’s adventures in the courtyard of the Eko Hotel, enjoying the open-air bar while paying Midtown Manhattan prices for our favourite drinks, always under the watchful eye of our no-nonsense security escorts. Afrobeat king Fela Kuti. Photograph: Guardian Among the richest moments were the time we spent with Fela’s family, with his children Femi, Yeni, Kunle and Seun, along with his siblings, cousins and wives. In 2008 one of Fela’s sons, Kunle, described Fela being buried. He described the scene of thousands of people filling the streets and covering every rooftop in the area. Now here I was with all my colleagues, seeing Fela’s grave. Then they opened the door of his room. His room had been sealed for years. There was his sax, his bed, hundreds of suits, there was everything.Kunle hadn’t been in the room for 10 years. Seun hadn’t been in for three. But they opened that room to let those people who had dedicated so much to keep his memory alive glimpse Fela, my beloved colleagues who had sacrificed so much of their bodies and their blood to bring Fela’s world to life for thousands of people every night on 49th Street in New York.Days later I found myself filing off a bus to stand before the New Africa Shrine with those colleagues. As we crushed our way to the entrance we began to hear the sound that had become so familiar to us over the years through watching documentaries about our subject. We heard the voice of the people, calling for Fela, calling for the Kalakutans – the people of Fela’s Kalakuta Republic, the compound where he lived and recorded with his family and his band. As we crossed the threshold of the shrine it seemed as if everyone in the place agreed on what the first utterance to us should be. From the front door to the stage door, all we heard greeting us was: “Welcome home.” Indeed, we had arrived. We were humbled by the reception and had no idea of the measure of beauty awaiting us for the duration of our stay.Fela Kuti is an immense subject, a bottomless character. Bill T Jones, our director, would say: “Fela was a tornado of a man.” When we first arrived people would say: “How can you bring Fela from America to Nigeria? Fela belongs to us.” Before we left they told us: “Fela has come home.” I don’t think they were talking about us – they were talking about his spirit.We are holding these experiences in our hearts and can’t wait to unleash them on those planning to join us for the adventure in London this summer.• Sahr witnessed landmark elections in Nigeria and wants you to help encourage the trend in the Democratic Republic of Congo (fallingwhistles.com/freeandfair). He wore clothes courtesy of Gozi, creative director of his new favourite brand, UMi-1 (gozi.co.uk).********************************************************************************http://geojane.wordpress.com/2011/04/11/nigerian-virginian/

Fela Anikulapo Kuti October 15, 1938- August 2, 1997 Nigerian musician and composer, creator, singer, saxophonist, frontman, inventor, and pioneer of afrobeat music.How do you say his name, Fella or Fey-la?NOVA Professor of History, Dr. Joeseph Windham, wise and worldly, pronounces Fela like the latter. Whichever way you say it, his name stands for a powerful and humble man. A paradox that translates in the music he creates.This is a photograph of Fela Kuti with some of the beautiful women he marries. These particular women became victims of sexual brutalityBEFORE THEY MET FELA, thus cast out and dishonored in their communities. Fela uses marriage as a means of protecting the women from discrimination. He makes it clear that they are heroines, deserved of the utmost respect and honor. Picture sourced from: http://www.kalamu.comfela 34.jpg

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OUR BLACK STANDARD OF BEAUTY!

BLACK-SKINNED WOMEN: QUEEN MOTHERS OF THE BLACK RACE AND ALL BEAUTY!
Why do I sing Praises of your Beautiful, Black, ebony,velvet skin,”Blacker than the sky at midnight”{1},your full mushroomed mouth, your beautiful broad nose, your generous “Congo hips” {2}and full-flowered backside? Because for too long many of the Black Race have abused, dishonored you, degraded and denied you your crown, Queen of Queens,Queen Mother of the Black Race, Black Beauty Supreme! From you all the beauty of the Black Race springs forth.In fact all the world’s beauty springs from you,Mother of all beauty of all the races of the world! Your Black midnight,licorice,dark black chocolate,beauty, is Blackness concentrated in your beautiful “Black-blueberry”{3} face!
First in the order of creation is always given respect by Afrikan tradition. The 1st wife, the 1st elder, the 1st kingdom, the 1st original inhabitants, of the earth-all are considered with honor. So it should be with Black Beauty-our darkest -skinned Sisters are the 1st Mothers of the Universe-Black as a color came before all the many tones of brown,red,yellow and white. But for too long our Dark-skinned Queens have not been given the respect and place of honor they deserve. IN FACT THE WHITE BOY HAS INTIATED the cycle of reversing the true order of things by turning upside down the pyramid of Beauty, and placing white-light on top and relegating the most beautiful Black-skinned Beauties to rock bottom!
So Black people have been taught well how to deny our most
beautiful one her crown, taught how to reject our Blackest, most Afrikan features, full lips and nose and mouth and woollest hair, for the weaker characteristics of the white race. Shame on Black people! When will we wake up to this Black Beauty concentrated, from whence all our lesser beauty comes. When will we give the crown of crowns,the throne of thrones, to the Blackest Queen of Queens?
Most of us who suffer from”mulatto-mentality” and “yellow fever”, as Fela, our great Nigerian Musician calls it, will go on and on about what about us lighter queens-aren’t we/they beautiful too, yet you/we should be aware that such queens have gotten all the play in the past and that even in Black Egypt one of the reasons for its downfall was the allowing the lighter ones of the race, to place themselves above the rest of us in the name of lightness and pride of light-closer/to/whiteness. So if we’re yellow,to light brown/red, then we should give respect where respect is due and not live off of the artificial white thrill of having “white features” as if it is an advantage. Where would you be without your BLACKEST great Grandmother? We should honor the Blackest part of ourselves, thus giving us true pride of Blackness, not verbal signifyin’ but real testifyin’ that BLACK is beautiful! If the Blackest, most Afrikan-featured Sister isn’t respected as the Supreme Beauty of the Race,the Black woman’s beauty is not really respected at all for what it really is(only in terms of how closer to white we look). We all reflect the strengths of this concentrated beauty in ourselves, all the manifestations of how Blackness can present itself are seen in our faces. Down to the milk-lightest of us, our Blackness is what dominates us whether physically or mentally. But the Mother is greater than the child and so the Blackest is greater than all the other tones of the Black Race. If we don’t respect our Blackest Queen, we don’t respect our True Black selves. We must have a Black value for BLACKNESS in features and skin tone. We must have a Black Standard of Beauty based on the Black-skinned woman. ALL PRAISES DUE TO OUR BLACK-SKINNED QUEEN-MOTHERS!
Sister Yeye Akilimali Funua Olade
1981,Lagos,Nigeria
BLACK NOTES: Let me give tribute to Brother Damu,House of Umoja(San Francisco) for{1}
{2}Brother O.O. Gabugan in the poem “Black Queen For a Day”,{3}Sister Sonia Sanchez in her poem “,Queens of the Universe”,for the quoted words used in the first part of this article.

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GABOUREY SIDIBE IS A BIG BLACK SKINNED BEAUTY WHO HAS BROKEN THE IMITATION WHITE GIRL GLASS STANDARD OF BEAUTY!